Expectations....

As I have posted in the past, Emma has been in a dance class. She loves her dance class. So when I found out that Meemaw and Papa were going to be able to be here for her last class which was open to parents to sit in on I was so excited. They were also going to be able to be here for her first dance performance (she is three so maybe more like dance standing but still). Living so far from our parents has been hard. I think this is part of why I was so excited that Emma would get to have her grandparents see her in her dance class. Here is a photo of Emma prior to her dance class the week before Meemaw and Papa were visiting.....



So cute right? She danced and practiced her performance, listened and had a great time as always. Here is a picture of Emma at her last dance class; the one that Meemaw and Papa were able to go to......



She was miserable. For whatever reason, she woke up from her nap in a foul mood and whined all the way to the class. I figured she would snap out of it. I tried the "honey, it's ok....just go and give it a try"; I tried leaving to see if it was me that was making her whine; and I even tried pointing to the teacher and looking at her sternly communicating...."you better dance...or else". I was sooooo frustrated. I think this was my first moment as a mother where I was disappointed in how my kids performed. I never wanted to be that mom. It wasn't a competitive thing, or even that I was embarrassed....kids all have have off days. I was just sooo disappointed. If you would have asked me what I would have done had Emma acted like that prior to the time I would have said that I would have not thought it was a big deal and just laughed about it. Instead I almost started crying. Finally her teacher had her come sit in my lap because she just wasn't participating and instead had the above look on her face the entire time. I huffed to the car with Emma whispering to her that I was very disappointed she had a bad attitude and then when we got home I burst into tears and had to take some time for myself. What? I am THAT mom? Ouch. I hope that the next time my kids disappoint me I will have a more mature reaction to it. I hope that I am not the parent with expectations of their children that are unreasonable. I hope that the next time something like this happens, I can laugh about it at the time instead of just afterward because let's face it, sometimes kids will be kids and you gotta laugh so you don't cry.